Term: November 2022 – January 2023
Oupa Sibeko (b.1992 South Africa) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work moves between theatrical, gallery, scholarly and other public contexts, overtly dealing with matter and politics of the body as a site of contested works. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bachelor of Art in Performance and Visual Arts in 2015 and since 2021 he is holding a Master of Fine Arts from the same University. Through his work enabling opportunities for affective and relational encounters using ritualistic performance and play, he seeks to critically engage approaches to the body, particularly the black male body, the history of representation and the ways in which certain subjectivities have been (and are) figured, (black) pain, (black) spectacle, (black) negation, and the ethical implications of reimaging and re-enacting pain. Is through African indigenous knowledge that he comes to understand and unpack his artistic practice. It is also from the same source that he borrows key elements of his performances, especially in relation to ritual and communal performances, theatre in the round, site-specific performances and the exchange of cultural Knowledge in a shared communal space.
